You are here

College and Career Readiness

The path to college and career readiness is complex. Providing schools and students with the research-based support they need at every critical stage can make all the difference for success. AIR works with education leaders at the state, district, and school levels to refine policies and practices so that students graduate on time and ready to succeed in college and careers. Our team of researchers, evaluators, and educators provides expertise in best practices and policies that support student achievement. We create opportunities for educators to dig deep and understand the interventions that will work best for their students.

Latest Work

The college admissions scandal that broke in March 2019 drew attention to the lengths that a few people go to cheat or pay their children’s way into these colleges, and to the way colleges make decisions about who gets accepted. Alexandria Walton Radford, a managing researcher at AIR and director of a new center on postsecondary education, answered a few questions about the state of college admissions.

AIR researchers explore the indicators that signal students’ readiness to reach key educational milestones. By synthesizing the latest research on early warning indicators and systems, we put research evidence into useable formats that can be easily turned into action at the state, district, and school levels.

GYO is one strategy to address local teacher shortages and recruit future teachers of color. By leveraging local talent, GYO programs can promote a more diverse workforce while supporting college and career readiness development in high school students. The learning series, Grow Your Own: A Systemic Approach to Securing an Effective Educator Talent Pool, helps those interested in developing and implementing GYO programs through four short modules.

To establish an education-to-workforce pipeline, state leaders need to align labor market efforts with the education pipeline to ensure a seamless system of academic, technical, and employability skills preparedness. This updated brief aims to identify opportunities to connect, align, and leverage state policies, programs, and funding across federal laws that govern the pipeline.

States, districts, and schools use research-based indicators to identify students at risk of failing to meet key educational milestones such as reading at grade level, on-time graduation, or college readiness and college persistence. By identifying students early, educators can target interventions and supports to help students to achieve readiness and success. AIR works with education leaders to customize and refine early warning systems based on the best available research and evidence.

State and school district leaders, whether relative newcomers to ESSA or entrenched in implementation, will find detailed information on states’ plans, policy, and research on educational practices in AIR’s ESSA Co-Pilot. The following 13 resources were chosen by AIR experts as the best entry point into this broad and deep topic.

Career and technical education (CTE) continues to gain traction with state and national policymakers, researchers, and educators across the country—evidenced by the creation of a federally funded center investigating CTE programs: the Career and Technical Education Research Network. AIR is leading this research network partnership under the direction of principal researcher Katherine Hughes, Ph.D. Hughes answered a few questions about CTE, the research network, and her background.

Career and technical education (CTE) is a critical strategy for preparing youth and adults for careers and addressing the skills gap—a disparity between the skills job-seekers offer and the skills that employers need. Nationwide, AIR is supporting organizations large and small to strengthen CTE through rigorous research, evaluation, and technical assistance.

Georgia has long believed that work-based learning is the best vehicle to teach students employability skills. Learn more about Georgia’s approach to work-based learning standards and how its structure plays a part in the success of their program.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest (REL Midwest), one of ten regional educational laboratories funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, serves the educational needs of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Explore these documentaries to learn more about the topics we cover.

Career and technical education (CTE) prepares students with academic, technical, and employability skills for success in the workplace and in further education. More research is needed to understand its effects on student outcomes. The CTE Research Network seeks to meet this need by increasing the number of impact studies and strengthening the capacity of the field to conduct and use rigorous research.

Across the country, work-based learning (WBL) is increasingly emerging as an effective strategy for providing authentic opportunities for students to learn, develop, and demonstrate crucial career-readiness skills. The Self-Assessment of Intermediary Practices tool supports the development, improvement, and operationalization of state, regional, and district efforts to use intermediaries or to implement intermediary strategies that contribute to a comprehensive, high-quality WBL system.

Nearly five decades of research has demonstrated that the places where individuals live and learn have a dramatic impact on their opportunities and life outcomes. The College and Career Readiness and Success Center has collaborated with several state and local agencies to produce custom-designed maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help leadership teams contextualize their WBL initiatives, that is, to develop a more precise understanding of how resources and socioeconomic factors are distributed.

Early warning systems can alert educators that students are struggling well before they fail to meet learning objectives. AIR has led the way in validating early warning indicators to identify those at-risk students—and in supporting educators to use data to provide appropriate interventions to ensure that students are on track to meet educational milestones.

Please join American Institutes for Research for a presentation and discussion focusing on the latest international results in financial literacy from the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
World-renowned researcher Dr. Annamaria Lusardi will present findings relevant to PISA and financial literacy more broadly.

This brief presents a review of research and current state practices as they relate to measures that Iowa might consider for its federal accountability indicator of school quality or student success—specifically, for inclusion within a composite index of postsecondary readiness.

Research indicates that students who take developmental (remedial) courses in college often struggle to persist in and complete credit-bearing coursework. These findings have spurred a range of reforms, such as corequisites, which provide developmental education support within the same semester as a credit-bearing course. This presentation describes the early findings from an experimental evaluation of this type of accelerated pathway in Texas community colleges.

State longitudinal data systems connect datasets traditionally housed between multiple state agencies, such as a state educational agency overseeing K-12 education with data from a commission for higher education.

The Southeast Comprehensive Center publishes this biannual list of resources that focus on college- and career-readiness standards and assessment. It includes materials from the federal content centers, comprehensive centers, and regional educational laboratories, as well as other organizations with expertise in education policy, research, and technical assistance.

Each year, nearly 6.5 million public school students receive special education services as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; the Act's 2004 reauthorization placed greater emphasis on using these funds to improve the postsecondary outcomes of students receiving special education services. This study used longitudinal data on all high school students in Washington State to investigate predictors of intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities.

States, districts, and schools that want to realize how competency-based education (CBE) can directly support students’ college and career readiness must examine the quality of implementation of core CBE features. The CBE 360 Survey Toolkit uses surveys from a recent AIR CBE study to provide a comprehensive picture of CBE implementation in six research-based core areas

School districts across the country are increasingly using online courses to expand credit recovery options for high school students who need to get back on track toward graduation, but the growing use of online credit recovery for high school students has considerably outpaced the research. In partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, AIR is working to provide evidence for practitioners and policymakers about how a promising use of online learning could help students recovery course credit and successfully progress toward graduation.

Competency-based education is an educational approach that focuses on mastery of an expanded set of competencies—rather than seat time—as a measure of student learning. This brief explores how states and districts can define learner competencies that reflect the full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for students to achieve college and career readiness.

AIR conducted this research review on college and career readiness indicators for partners at the Boston Opportunity Agenda. The indicators are based on students’ experiences during their years in high school.

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) reports that 94 percent of prisoners have at most a high school education—and 30 percent of those who previously attended high school did not earn a diploma. Yet, access to in-prison education and work experience are associated with a reduction in the likelihood of recidivism and provide inmates with a critical element on the path to reshape their personal identities. Could offering prisoners more education and work experience inside prison be a key solution to mass incarceration in the U.S.?

By incorporating college and career readiness principles into a well-rounded education, states, and districts can leverage federal funding for a well-rounded education to support college and career readiness strategies.This brief describes how states can develop and implement their own definitions of a well-rounded education focused on improving college and career readiness.

Prior research shows that rural students’ education expectations and aspirations, as well as their postsecondary enrollment and persistence rates, tend to be lower than those of nonrural students. This study aims to support policymakers and other stakeholders in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest states by informing policy recommendations for improving postsecondary attainment among rural students in the region.

College education is fundamental to students’ upward mobility, states’ economic growth, and the country’s economic competitiveness. To better enable middle and high schools to increase college participation and success rates among their students, the University of Minnesota developed Ramp-Up to Readiness™, a schoolwide advisory program to increase students’ likelihood of college enrollment and completion. This report describes a study of the impacts of the program after one year of implementation and provides information on how it differs from college-related supports in other schools.

Acceleration programs are academically challenging courses in which high school students can simultaneously earn credit toward a high school diploma and a postsecondary degree. The results of this study raise several considerations for educators and policymakers, including the potential importance of expanding opportunities for underrepresented students to enroll in acceleration programs and reexamining state procedures for collecting data in order to classify acceleration programs more comprehensively and document differences between types of programs.

Previous research has demonstrated that some form of education or training after high school is critical to both the upward mobility of individuals and the economic competitiveness of the country. Recent federal policy has recognized the need to address the postsecondary opportunities of nontraditional students and adult learners. The findings of this research were compared with existing research on strategies to address adult basic education transition to postsecondary education and training opportunities.

The path to college and career readiness is complex. Providing schools and students with the research-based support they need at every critical stage can make all the difference for success, and ESSA provides an opportunity for states and districts to develop a more coherent and coordinated approach to ensuring all students are college and career ready. AIR works with leaders at the state, district and school levels to consider strategies that fit the local context and are supported by evidence.

At 21, many foster youth “age out” of financial benefits and supports from the child welfare system—before they even finish college. Given the challenges they face, it’s not surprising that only 3 to 10 percent of them earn undergraduate degrees compared with 34 percent of young adults who weren’t in foster care. What can states do to ensure foster youth have the support they need to graduate from college? In this blog post, Patricia Campie provides an overview of the educational challenges foster students face in the transition to college.

Join AIR on Monday, November 7, 2016, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST to hear highlights from AIR's Study of Competency-Based Education (CBE), which examined the relationship between CBE practices and students' learning disposition, skills, and behaviors. The findings from this study reveal both the promise and limitations of CBE, showing that competency-based practices may benefit kids, but that not all self-identified "CBE schools" consistently implement core CBE features.

A strong science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education is becoming increasingly recognized as a key driver of opportunity. In a series of discussion-based workshops, 30 experts and thought leaders were invited to exchange ideas and develop recommendations for the future of STEM education.

The purpose of this study was to identify the instructional practices that may be useful for the development of different aspects of student agency (i.e., self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and persistence) and determine whether these instructional practices are equally helpful for different subgroups of students.

ESSA provides an opportunity for states to operationalize their college and career readiness vision. This brief provides a policy framework to help states align their college and career readiness definitions with relevant policy provisions under ESSA into one cohesive strategy.

School teachers have been taking attendance since there were school teachers. It turns out that the simple act of noting who is missing—and then doing something about it in a systematic way—may be a key element in student success. In this blog post, David Blumenthal shares the latest research and tools for early warning systems that help schools and districts better serve at-risk students.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) advocates are still eagerly awaiting reauthorization of the Perkins Act. While we wait, two important events could change the face of CTE across the country: 1) the passage of ESSA and 2) a new vision for CTE released by Advance CTE. In this blog post, Chaney Mosely explores whether ESSA will support states in carrying out the new vision proposed by Advance CTE.

Career and technical education provides students with the employability and technical skills they need to enter the workforce. In this video interview, Chaney Mosley talks about what elements such educational programs need to successfully prepare students and who benefits the most.

The old either/or model of college-prep or vocational education is out of sync with the needs of 21st-century America. Career pathways offer a way out of this bind. They help high school students gain secondary and postsecondary education, training, and support services while they acquire marketable skills, industry-recognized credentials, and eventually good jobs aligned with labor market needs. In this blog post, Jessica Giffin highlights how career pathway systems combine rigorous academics with workplace experience using the latest technologies.

This Professional Learning Module was developed to support regional comprehensive centers, state educational agency staff, and state regional centers in building their knowledge and capacity to integrate and prioritize employability skills at the state and local levels.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education John King called for the reauthorization of The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act so that “every student, in every community, has access to rigorous, relevant, and results-driven CTE programs.” In this blog post, Chaney Mosley suggests five changes Congress should consider.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama said, “We live in a time of extraordinary change… and whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate.” In this blog post, AIR’s Peter Cookson says the key to dealing with this change is education and offers six policy recommendations to improve education in the face of these dramatic changes.

For educators and employers, understanding the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that ultimately contribute to success in school, work, and life is a priority. Over the past decade, afterschool programs have focused on preparing young people for the workforce by developing good work habits and a strong work ethic; this brief addresses the importance of those programs also teaching social and emotional learning competencies.

Although young people need many skills to be successful in the workplace, one aspect of employability has gained attention in recent years—the need for workers to have strong social and emotional skills. Afterschool programs have a role to play in supporting the development of these skills for all youth. This planning tool is designed to help afterschool workers identify priority areas for employability skills building based on youth and employer input, and plan next steps based on that input.

In June 2013, former Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law House Bill 5, which established a new high school graduation program—the Foundation High School Program—for students entering Grade 9 in 2014–15 and reduced the number of state assessments required for graduation. This initial report provides an overview of the existing programs as well as a description of the first year of implementation of the Foundation High School Program.

Practitioners and researchers agree that social and emotional learning (SEL) is essential to academic achievement and well-being in school, as well as success in college and career. Above and beyond the free supports that AIR’s federal technical assistance centers provide, SEL Solutions at AIR offers an approach to keep social and emotional learning at the center of students’ educational experiences.

Recent data shows that while students from low-income families began 9th grade with high aspirations of going to college, by junior year their expectations decline considerably. In this blog post, Sakiko Ikoma and Markus Broer argue that closing the enrollment gap between low-income students and their more affluent counterparts means education leaders and policymakers should not only continue to expand access to these leg-up courses, but also consider a range of additional supports for low-income students.

For the last several years, the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics have been exploring how the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Nation’s Report Card, can be used to assess the college and career readiness of America’s high school students. Researchers at AIR used existing administrative records from Virginia to examine the relationship between NAEP scores and a set of concrete measures of student success in college and in the labor market.

Virginia's vocational rehabilitation agencies offer individuals with disabilities a new way to navigate their careers. Career Pathways for Individuals with Disabilities (CPID) helps individuals with disabilities obtain new skills and credentials to seek employment in competitive, high-demand, high-quality occupations.

Policymakers, students, parents, and the media are taking a hard look at the value of higher education. Which college to choose? Associate's or Bachelor's degree? What major? The research featured here offers insight on how those choices affect students' success and future earnings.

The bachelor's degree has been seen as the doorway to the middle class for most Americans, but the recent rise of sub-baccalaureate credentials has been transforming higher education. In this video series, "Breakthroughs in Education and Social Mobility," expert Mark Schneider examines the value of such credentials.

Effective preparation of Career and Technical Education (CTE) educators has a direct relationship to improved CTE student outcomes. This brief shares findings from a national survey and outlines the most-identified priority training topics overall for CTE educators and by categories of administrators and teachers.

A growing number of states and districts are turning to competency-based education (CBE) as a strategy for enabling students to become college and career ready. This resource was produced to illustrate the various ways in which state education agencies can advance CBE initiatives.

States and schools are shifting their focus to ensure college and career readiness is a realistic and attainable goal for all students. This brief provides an overview of competency-based education, one model to support college and career readiness for all.

With careers for millennials stalling on the launch pad, does the push for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) really make sense? In this blog post, AIR Institute Fellow Mark Schneider explains that new data suggest that the nation may not need more bachelor’s graduates in the most popular science fields.

Deeper learning combines a deeper understanding of core academic content, the ability to apply that understanding to new situations, and a range of competencies related to human interaction and self-management. A recent study by AIR found that students in high schools that were part of networks associated with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Deeper Learning Community of Practice performed better than similar students in comparison schools on a range of measures.

Students, their families, and taxpayers invest in higher education for a variety of reasons. One of the most-cited by students is that postsecondary education is an investment that leads to better jobs and higher wages. In this article from Issues in Science and Technology, AIR Vice President and Institute Fellow Mark Schneider asks two critical questions: Do bachelor’s graduates earn enough to justify the time and money spent getting the degree? Are there more efficient ways to earn a postsecondary credential associated with middle-class earnings?

Attaining some kind of college degree is the surest way to improve one’s earnings in the United States. But many college students earn credentials with little labor market value or don’t attain any credential at all. Many—especially in our community colleges—could get into better colleges than they end up attending. In this commentary, AIR Institute Fellow Harry Holzer offers suggestions for a widening the range of pathways into the labor market and boosting performance and completion rates for students.

On the traditional school path, Step 1 is graduating from high school, Step 2 is going to college, and Step 3 is earning a credential or degree; but overall, only about 59 percent of high school graduates who make it to Step 2 finish Step 3, earning a degree or credential within six years. In this blog post, AIR senior researcher Clarisse Haxton describes the Early College model, which allows students to combine Steps 1 and 2 and enroll in college courses and earn college credits while still in high school.

Competency-based programs could reduce the barriers many face to getting a college degree, whether adult learners who struggle to balance an academic calendar with work and family, or workers who want to get the credentials verifying skills they’ve acquired on the job. AIR hosted a briefing on competency-based education, a flexible model of instruction that focuses on what students know and can do—rather than how much time they spend in the classroom.

Research has shown a gap in college enrollment and degree attainment between students in rural and nonrural high schools. In Indiana, where 31 percent of high school students attend rural schools, increasing postsecondary educational attainment requires under standing and addressing the needs and challenges of rural students. This descriptive study supports the state’s efforts to improve college readiness by offering a better understanding of the processes that advance the educational success of rural students and by providing a foundation for future research on these processes and potential interventions.

Many young Americans enroll in college - but completion rates are not high. In this AIR Index, Harry J. Holzer examines the research to highlight completion rates by race, gender, quartile and income for students enrolling in 2- and 4-year programs.

In this blog post, Zeyu Xu discusses findings from his study in Kentucky, the first state to implement the Common Core State Standards, from the encouraging findings about student achievement during the transition from the old standards to caveats about whether the achievement gains were caused by the new ones.

As of October 2014, 43 states have adopted the new Common Core State Standards, which grew out of concerns that existing state standards are not adequately preparing students with the knowledge and skills needed to compete globally, necessitating a clearer set of learning expectations that are consistent from state to state. This study provides a first look at how student college- and career-readiness have progressed in the early years of Common Core implementation.

There is a growing consensus among researchers that lifelong learning skills (LLS) are discretely identifiable and actionable levers of support for college and career readiness and success objectives. This policy brief provides a synthesis of the key takeaways from the annotated bibliography and describes policy considerations for integrating LLS into education objectives.

Schools need to place a greater emphasis on social and emotional skills for students to prepare them for work and for life. In this policy snapshot, we summarize existing research about the effects of education on students’ social and emotional skills and identify important state and district policy considerations for initiating and integrating social and emotional learning, as well as for preparing and developing teachers and administrators to focus on the whole child.

College success and career readiness have become major goals of education reform. Toward this end, Indiana policymakers have undertaken multiple efforts to prepare students for college. This study supports those efforts by describing the early college success of Indiana students, identifying measures in the state longitudinal data system that predict early college success, and examining the usefulness of those predictors.

AIR is hosting a conversation with Ph.D. holders who have chosen careers outside of academe during the Society of Research on Educational Effectiveness’ upcoming spring conference in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 2015 at 8:30AM.

Where can a math or English or history teacher go to discover ways to integrate and assess college and career readiness standards and skills in their classes? In this blog post, AIR's Catherine Jacques suggests working with career and technical education teachers, who have used this kind of instruction for decades to bring real-world learning into their classrooms.

How did higher education get so expensive? Who should be counseling prospective college students? Do bachelor's degree holders have relevant job skills? AIR Vice President and Institute Fellow Mark Schneider recently answered these and other questions during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. Here are the highlights.

How did higher education get so expensive? Who should be counseling prospective college students? Do bachelor's degree holders have relevant job skills? AIR Vice President and Institute Fellow Mark Schneider recently answered these and other questions during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit.

Governors are called upon to lead and improve their states' education systems, addressing a number of diverse and changing issues. In this open letter, AIR's Angela Minnici, director of the Education Policy Center and the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, sets out seven action steps for 2015 to help governors address the needs of students from early childhood through workforce.

Getting a job is about more than academic performance. In this blog post, Kimberly Kendziora discusses the growing body of research on the importance of social and emotional skills, such as self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills.

Career and technical education (CTE) is a critical strategy for preparing youth and adults for careers and addressing the skills gap – a disparity between the skills job-seekers offer and the skills that employers need.

According to new AIR analysis of an international survey, a surprisingly large number of adults in the United States cannot apply reading or math skills to solve simple real life problems. In this blog post, Dan Sherman discusses the PIACC results he says educators, researchers, and policymakers need to explore to help improve adults' chances in a demanding job market.

Algebra I is a critical gateway course for high school graduation and enrollment in college. These briefs summarize research on five strategies being implemented by U.S. Department of Education’s High School Graduation Initiative grantees to help struggling students succeed in Algebra I.

Parents, teachers, schools, districts, states, and especially students all want schools that prepare graduates to thrive in the 21st century. In this blog post, Anne Mishkind asks what it means to be "college and career ready."

AIR’s state and local evaluation projects marshal a broad range of expertise and resources to support state education agencies and district offices as they decide whether to retain, revise, or end a policy or program. The projects address challenges in district and school reform, educator quality, special education, school financing, STEM, literacy, virtual learning, extended learning, English learning, early childhood education, and college and career readiness.

Given persistent failure rates and mounting student debt, how prepared students are to enter and succeed in college is suddenly everyone’s business. According to Mark Schneider, in this blog post, ACT data shows many students ready to leave for college are not ready academically in at least one area.

This guide provides a review of research on higher education persistence indicators that can be used to predict whether a student will remain enrolled in college and complete a two- or four-year degree.

The Program for International Student Assessment, an international assessment of math, recently began assessing financial literacy. Having experience helps, according to this blog post by Teresa Kroeger and Lydia Malley: Among U.S. 15-year-olds, regardless of socioeconomic status, teenagers who had a bank account and a pre-paid debit card had higher financial literacy scores than those who had neither.

The Program for International Student Assessment, an international assessment of math, is now including a financial literacy component. As Mark Schneider explains in this blog post, the first series of results are not good: In the United States, 18 percent of 15-year-old students scored below the baseline of proficiency.

As the academic year begins, students, parents, instructors, and administrators face difficult choices with long-term consequences. What should I study to make the most of my investment? How will I pay for it? For colleges, how can we manage growing costs and shifting attitudes? Recent work sheds light on some of these questions.

In February 2014, President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative. This week, the president is announcing an additional $104 million in funding from new partnerships with public and private groups to address the opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color at critical stages throughout their lives. AIR’s work focuses on issues critical to the support of young men of color, from childhood interventions to preparation for career success.

STEM degree production in the U.S. is not keeping pace with the demand for STEM talent. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM disciplines—the largest untapped STEM talent pools in the United States.

STEM degree production in the U.S. is not keeping pace with the demand for STEM talent. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM disciplines—the largest untapped STEM talent pools in the United States.

NAEP's own data shows different rates among college seniors who are proficient vs. those who are ready for college. Until achievement results for 12th grade students with a good dose of Common-Core-based education under their belts become available, says Fran Stancavage in this blog post, educators who set NAEP standards may have to consider just what our national standard of math proficiency should be.

In this blog post, Mark Schneider uses data to show that despite the recent push for expanded opportunities for apprenticeships, we need to remember that not all apprenticeships lead to equal outcomes.

The overarching theme repeatedly heard over the two-day Black Male Summit at Morehouse College recently: African American males feel disconnected, misunderstood, and inadequately supported by teachers, principals, and others involved in running their schools. In this blog post, Darren Woodruff details some of the alarming data that emerged from the Summit.

One size does not fit all when it comes to Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher evaluation. In this blog post, Jane Coggshall discusses the difficulty of evaluating CTE teachers based on student progress, the subject of recent research at AIR.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers are uniquely positioned to improve college and career readiness for all students, and yet major federal and state education reforms, such as the Common Core State Standards, teacher evaluation and ESEA flexibility have paid insufficient attention to d

More than 7 million high school and middle school students in Career and Technical Education programs—and their 140,000 teachers—are celebrating Career Technology Education Month in February. In this blog, Catherine Jacques describes the importance of these teachers, based on her recent research.

Since 2008, AIR has been a pro bono investment partner with Say Yes to Education, a national nonprofit organization committed to dramatically increasing high school and college graduation rates for our nation’s inner-city youth. AIR has produced three papers that look at districtwide education reform in Syracuse.

The findings in this report, which extend the Early College, Early Success study’s original results by including an additional year of data, affirm the core findings: Early College students had a greater opportunity than their peers to enroll in and graduate from college.

The Pathways to College Online Library is an online database of studies, articles, tools and other resources where researchers, practitioners and policymakers can access resources on preparing students for success in college and beyond. The Library contains more than 3,500 entries from a variety of sources, including peer-reviewed journals, professional associations, research centers, policy organizations, universities, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies, state and local agencies, and others.

AIR supports the Postsecondary, Adult, and Career Education Division (PACE) program in measuring participation in education and training for work, and in quantifying the outcomes of postsecondary education and student indebtedness.

If educators and policymakers are to make good on the national commitment to graduate more students from high school prepared to face postsecondary challenges, schools must continue to improve career technical education (CTE), ensuring that students have access to high-quality pathways to success. This brief provides an overview of the evolution of CTE in the U.S., reviews what it looks like in practice, and highlights issues CTE faces in the field.

Case studies of work in Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands show how AIR provides educators with the research to understand how data can be used appropriately to predict student failure and success.

The National High School Center at AIR developed an early warning systems tool that provides accurate and timely data to identify students most at risk for dropping out of high school. The center’s tool allows districts to dig deeper into their data, see patterns, and uncover the reasons behind students’ poor performance.

AIR has developed Promoting College and Career Readiness: A Pocket Guide for State and District Leaders, aresearch-based reference tool that identifies strategies to ensure that all students, regardless of special needs or language fluency, are prepared for postsecondary education and careers.

To increase the success of the 2.5 million adults who access the nation’s adult basic education system, the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education has conducted several projects to provide Adult Basic Education students with rigorous standards comparable to those found in K-12. AIR staff identified a writing panel to develop the EFLS and a review panel, which assessed them and prepared a brief summary report of the process.

Accountability is a necessary and critical focus in education. In 2012, the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) did not have an accountability system in place to monitor adult education public charter schools. AIR consults with DCPCSB, using its expertise in developing, advising on, and updating accountability systems to support the board in creating a fair and appropriate accountability system. AIR provides insights into policy changes in adult education and the changing needs of the DCPCSB accountability system.

AIR developed the Massachusetts Early Warning Indicators System (EWIS) for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) which identifies students who are at-risk of not meeting key benchmarks (e.g., reading by the end of third grade, graduating from high school) along a student’s educational trajectory. In 2012 every district in the state received this information for students enrolled in first through twelfth grade, and now AIR is working the ESE to support district and school implementation of EWIS.

In 2009, the College Board selected AIR to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of College Readiness Systems. The evaluation examined the implementation and the impact of the program in both College Board and EXCELerator schools. This report focuses on the impact of the EXCELerator program from its inception in the 2006–07 school year through the 2009-10 school year.

Which practices foster college readiness for students, particularly English learners? This study interviewed students, teachers and administrators to determine what college readiness means to staff and how teachers help prepare students.

Millions of high school students—particularly those with disabilities, with limited proficiency in English, or from low-income backgrounds—need additional support in order to succeed. To address this challenge, the National High School Center promotes the use of research-supported approaches that help all students learn and become adequately prepared for college, work, and life.

The Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) funds the development of Early College Schools (ECSs) that provide students the opportunity to simultaneously pursue a high school diploma and earn college credits. AIR, with our partner SRI International, evaluate the ECHSI.

This is the fifth annual synthesis report for the Early College High School Initiative. A brief overview shows that although the ECHSI continued to grow in terms of the number of schools participating, the growth was slower than in prior years. It also is clear that fewer ECSs are opening as conversions from existing schools.

The Texas Education Agency created the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention Program to ease the transition of at-risk students into high school and increase the likelihood that they graduate on time and are prepared for college and careers. The comprehensive evaluation conducted by AIR and its partner found that the program significantly increased the English and mathematics assessment scores of participating students compared to similar students who did not participate in the program.